AN ATTIC RED-FIGURE STAMNOS, attributed to a later Mannerist, 450-440 B.C.

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AN ATTIC RED-FIGURE STAMNOS, attributed to a later Mannerist, 450-440 B.C.

Side A: departure of Amphiaraos, who wears a corslet and pilos-shaped helmet, holding a spear in his left hand, his right arm on his hip, looking towards Eriphyle, his wife, who hands him his sword whilst holding up her garment to conceal the necklace of Harmonia. His naked son, Alkmeon, (pubic hair indicated) clings to his father's arem to dissuade him from leaving. To the right of Amphiaraos stand a youthful spear-bearer, wearing a skin cloak, high boots and a pack behind his neck, his right forefinger raised. In the field between the heads of Amphiaraos and Eriphyle, is the inscription KALOIS

Side B: a bearded draped man standing between two women.

Asymmetrical palmette scrolls and bud under each handle

Condition: intact

13½in. (34.4cm.) high

Lot Essay

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Found in Camarina, Spadaro collection in Scicli. Benndorf, Archaölogische Anzeiger, 1867, 115; id., Griechische und sicilischer Vasenbilder, 84, pl. 39, no. 1, where the vase is called a hydria; Beazley, ARV2, 1121, no. 19, "shape unknown ... Recalls the Nausicaa Painter"; Cahn, Antike Vasen, Sonderliste R, Dezember 1977, 22, no. 59, pl. 54; I. Krauskopf, LIMC, I, 703, no. 73a and pl. 569 (sv Amphiaraos); O. Touchefeu-Meynier, LIMC, I, 769, no. 1 (sv Andromache). An alternative interpretation of this scene is Hector, Andromache and Astyanax.

Amphiaraos, son of Oicles and Hypermnestra, was a great prophet and hero at Argos, who was persuaded to join the ill-fated expedition against Thebes by his wife, Eriphyle. She had been induced to persuade her husband by the gift of the necklace of Harmonia from Polynices. On leaving Argos he urged his son to avenge his death which he had already foreseen. During the war against Thebes, unable to escape his fate, he fled towards the river Ismenius and the earth swallowed him up in his chariot. An oracle near Oropus, between Potniae and Thebes, grew up where he was immortalised and worshipped as a hero

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